Swiss game museum: the link between nature and ludism

Human at the center, nature as a playground to conquer. In video gamesthis paradigm prevails. Winning involves extracting rare resources or dominating nature, like «Minecraft». This video game universe reflects our extractivist and industrial society, while shaping our imaginations in our relationship to the living.

“There is something counter-intuitive to link contemporary environmental challenges that can be heavy and the game, but it is precisely this contrast that is interesting. Games are cultural objects to take also seriously, they tell us about the state of the world, history, the socio -political context, ”underlines Sélim Krichanedirector of Swiss game museum.

Through 150 board games and twenty video games, the interactive exhibition “Planet Games” creates bridges between these two worlds. If “Minecraft” is absent from the rooms of Château Boéland, it is to give way to their own creations or small production companies, which precisely evoke new narrations. Finished to excavate or dominate. Here, we regenerate, contemplate, protect the planet, treat animals.

However, “this is not an exhibition on the sustainabilityspecifies the director. It explores the environmental imaginations that appear in games and through its history. ” At a time when some young people are affected by eco-anxiety, there is no question here of demoralizing, but of awareness while having entertainment. “This exhibition was not obvious to conceive, it was necessary to deal with the emotions and the resistance that this theme can arouse in the visitor. It does not give lessons or a vocation to generate sad affects. ”

Collaboration with scientists

The exhibition is also part of the evolution of research on this relationship between play and environment. In collaboration with the Haute École d’In engineerie du Valais (HEI), the museum presents “Don’t Touch The Grass”, an interactive installation which invites you to tread a digital meadow.

Another scientific partnership, with the University of Lausanne, which gave birth to two interactive terminals – one for children, the other for adults – which makes it possible to raise awareness about the carbon footprint of playful practices.

(En) Environmental Games

But play, does it pollute? “Behind its apparent lightness, the game is also the fruit of massive industrial production. Extraction of rare metals, dependence on global supply chains, etc. » Although the impact is not negligible, Sélim Krichane also puts perspective: “If we put in perspective with other industries, that of the game is not among the most polluting.”

To assess its impact, studies are based on an analysis of their life cycle, from their production to their elimination. As a result, most of the environmental costs are due to their manufacture and associated devices – screens, helmets, consoles, etc.

The exhibition ends with a series of solutions for a more sustainable game: buy second -hand, borrow in a toy library, play collectively. “This makes it possible to lengthen the lifespan of these objects and to limit the frantic race for the production and the accumulation of equipment,” informs the director. Because, it is not a question of leaving the game, but rather of changing the rules.

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